Venezuela set to ration power as recurring blackouts hit

Power will soon be rationed across Venezuela because of recurring blackouts, ministers said.

Blackouts across Venezuela means all power will be rationed (Reuters)

Despite its huge energy resources, the country has been crippled in several weeks by outages.

Now consumers and heavy industries have been told to cut power by ten per cent or face increased charges.

âItâs imperative that all Venezuelans contribute to and join in the campaign to save electricity,â said energy minister Ali Rodriguez.

But he did not say how many of Venezuelaâs 24 states would be affected.

The South American country has experienced three major blackouts in the past three months.

The most recent outages hit western Venezuela last week, affecting several states along the border with Colombia and Maracaibo, the second-largest city.

President Hugo Chavez has been running the country from Cuba after travelling there on June 9 to have surgery to remove a pelvic abscess.

Opposition politicians claim the government had not invested enough in new infrastructure to keep up with growing demand.

State officials conceded that project delays were to blame for some blackouts but they also suggested that enemies of the state had sabotaged the electricity grid and were trying to pin the blame for outages on Mr Chavez.